Kevin Johnson isn’t some late-to-the-game “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” fan.
His love for the rock musical, a tale of identity as told through the eyes of an East German genderqueer singer living in middle America, goes way back.
“I saw the original, off Broadway at the Jane Street Theater in the 1998,” Johnson said. “I’ve followed it for years and years.”
The production, written by actor John Cameron Mitchell, with music and lyrics by Stephen Trask, follows protagonist Hedwig Schmidt on a journey through life that doesn’t exactly go according to plan.
A sex change operation gone wrong leaves Hedwig mutilated. Her move to the States and marriage to a young soldier falls apart when her husband leaves her for a man.
Hedwig forms a band only to have her protege run off with her music to become a big rock star, while she, along with her group, the Angry Inch, is stuck playing local dives for little pay.
The path Hedwig takes is filled with introspection.
As a New York Times review covering the premiere of “Hedwig” in 1998 put it, “Hedwig spends her time onstage coming to terms with the implications of mistakes she made, of her self-denying masquerade.”
The overall essence of the production struck a chord with Johnson.
“There is something about the show and the score that hits me in a really vulnerable and kind of needed place as far as thinking about my importance and everyone else’s importance of why we are here, why we exist,” Johnson said. “Being true to ourselves; trying not to care what people think, but since we are human, we do.”
In March of 2020, Johnson, artistic director of Arizona Onstage Productions, attempted a three-week run of “Hedwig,” but was thwarted by the arrival of COVID to Southern Arizona.
“We opened March 14,” Johnson said. “By the middle of the performance, we were told this was going to be our final performance. We opened and closed all on the same night.”
Two years later, Johnson and his crew are ready to finish what they started. The company, along with Spark!, will be holding six performances, at the Temple of Music and Art’s Cabaret Space starting Friday, March 18.
Johnson said nearly everyone involved with the production two years ago has signed back on to try it again. That includes director Shana Nunez and Jordon Ross Seibert, who plays Hedwig.
Johnson, who also teaches theater at a local elementary school, said he found Seibert after putting out a call on Facebook for fog machines that could be used in a third-grade production of “The Jungle Book.”
“He was a vet tech, but also a performer from Baltimore,” Johnson said. “He told me, ‘I did this show called ‘Hedwig.’ I toured with it. Have you heard of it?’
“I thought, ‘Oh my God. I’ve been trying to find my Hedwig for years.’ I’ve always wanted to stage it. I really needed somebody who could act it, but could also faithfully sing the score the way it is meant to be performed.”
“Hedwig and the Angry Inch” will take place at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and at 5 p.m. Sundays through March 27 at the Temple of Music and Art’s Cabaret Space, 330 S. Scott Ave. Tickets are $20-$25 through arizonaonstage.org
